The Postman Always Rings Twice

by James M. Cain

First published 1995

Frank Chambers walks into a roadside gas station and diner looking for work. The owner offers him a job, but Frank's attention fixes on Cora, the man's beautiful and restless wife. She feels trapped in her marriage and sees Frank as her way out. Their attraction ignites quickly into an affair that consumes them both. But escape means eliminating her husband, and murder brings complications neither anticipated. Their crime draws police attention and legal troubles that threaten to destroy them. Trust breaks down as each begins to suspect the other of betrayal. Frank and Cora discover that their desperate grab for freedom has locked them into something far more dangerous than the life they tried to leave behind.

Genres: fiction, 20th-century, mystery, crime, thriller

Vibes: dark, fast-paced, intimate, suspenseful

Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator

Setting: Gas Station, Diner

Period: 20th-Century

168 pages · Hardcover · Chivers Press

Content warnings: murder, violence

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